Trade finance banks learn to keep it simple, silly!

The World Trade Organisation WTO calls trade finance the lifeblood of trade -- an apt conclusion considering as much as 90% of trade needs credit.

This necessity for financing meant when credit markets dried up in 2008, things got dicey. In the darkest moments, experts estimated that there was as much as a $100 billion shortfall in trade financing globally and fears circulated that 2009 could be the year trade sputtered to a stop on account of a lack of credit.

In the end, things did not turn out that way. While global trade volumes did drop -- 17.6% year-on-year according to the World Bank -- it was not due to a...